Navigate / search

Author Denis Johnson's papers acquired by the Ransom Center

By Alicia Dietrich

Denis Johnson speaks on a panel at the Ransom Center's 2008 Flair Symposium on 'Building the Archive.' Photo by Anthony Maddaloni.

The Ransom Center has acquired the papers of National Book Award winner Denis Johnson, author of Jesus’ Son and Tree of Smoke.

The collection includes manuscripts, typescripts, research materials, journals, correspondence, family photos and juvenilia, press clippings, books, and other items. Many of Johnson’s pre-1992 works exist only in digital form, and bundles of floppy disks with manuscript drafts are part of the archive. An early scrapbook includes baby footprints, Johnson’s birth certificate, family photos and correspondence between Johnson and his family.